his character conspired to impress me with favorable sentiments of his independence and public spirit. But these prepossessions fell far short of the meritorious conduct which he has actually exhibited in the sequel ́of this business.

The following copy of my letter to the Lord Provost will explain sufficiently the motives by which I was influenced in taking a step so repugnant to all my usual habits, as a passive spectator of the occurrences of the day. Nothing, in truth, but my complete conviction, that the ruin of the University was threatened by the measures which were avowedly in contemplation among a party of the Edinburgh Clergy, could have led me to think of it. The contents of my letter will, at the same time, show, that I was actuated by no wish to exclude from our Universities those ministers of the church of Scotland, whose literary attainments, or taste for the sciences, might lead them to prefer the duties of an academical life to those connected with the exercise of their clerical functions.

"MY LORD,

"Edinburgh, 12th February 1805.

"I did myself the honor of calling upon your Lordship on Saturday, and intended to have repeated my visit yesterday or to-day; but a sore throat, which has confined me to my bed-chamber since Sunday, afternoon, lays me under the necessity of troubling your Lordship with a letter.

"After having done the duty of a professor in this University for more than thirty years, (not to mention my hereditary connexion with it for nearly twice that period), I flatter myself I stand in no need of an apology with your Lordship, for presuming to offer my opinion on a subject which I conceive to be deeply interesting to its future prosperity. I have no favor to ask for myself, or any other individual; nor can I be suspected of any motives but such as it is my pride to avow to the public.

"The single point to which I am anxious to draw your Lordship's attention, is the expediency of uniting

professorships with ecclesiastical livings. I shall make no invidious references to what is already passed; but the honorable proof which you have just given of the liberal and enlightened principles by which you are guided in the exercise of your academical patronage, encourages me to hope, that a check may be yet given to a practice, which, if persisted in for a few years longer, must inevitably terminate in the ruin of an establishment from which this city has derived, for more than two centuries, much solid emolument, as well as literary distinction.

"That our theological professorships should be held by ministers of Edinburgh, has been always my opinion and my wish, although I know that even such pluralities are reprobated by many clergymen of this country, who, in their zeal for the interests both of religion and of literature, are certainly not surpassed by any of their brethren. But in no other case whatever, am I able to conceive an argument which can be urged in favor of such a measure, which will not conclude with greater force in favor of uniting different academical offices in the same person. During the very long period of my own connexion with the College, I have had the satisfaction of lending my assistance occasionally to more than one of my colleagues. In the year 1778-79, while professor of mathematics, I gave a complete course of lectures on moral philosophy for Dr. Ferguson; and a few years afterwards, when he was taken suddenly ill, after the commencement of the session, I supplied his place for four months. In the year 1787-88, after being translated to the chair of moral philosophy, I relieved the late Mr. Robison, for one whole season, of his academical duty; and yet on none of these occasions, nor in any case of vacancy. which has since occurred, did I indulge the idea of holding more professorships than one, although the practicability of doing so has been repeatedly pressed on me by some of my friends. At this moment I feel myself as competent to discharge the duties of the mathematical professorship, in addition to those of my own, as I was twenty-five years ago, when I united the labors of both. But I can with great

truth assure your Lordship, that were the vacant office now in my offer, the prospect of doubling my income would not make me insensible to the disgrace of giving my sanction to a precedent, so contrary to the spirit of those rules under which our Scotch universities have hitherto flourished.

"In what I have now taken the liberty to state to your Lordship, I have proceeded on the supposition, that Mr. Playfair's office as professor of mathematics is already vacated by his acceptance of the professorship of natural philosophy. At the same time, I cannot see any principle on which that supposition rests, which will not apply equally to any beneficed clergyman who shall accept of the same situation. One thing I may venture to assert, is, that a union of two professorships, so nearly allied in their provinces, would have a propriety, which cannot be alleged in favor of some appointments which have already taken place; and I may add, with equal confidence, that there is no individual in Scotland more fitted than Mr. Playfair to discharge the duties of both offices with credit to himself and advantage to the public. Even in this strongest possible case, however, I should consider a union of two such laborious employments as a pernicious example; and I have the happiness to know that Mr. Playfair's sentiments on this head coincide entirely with my own.

"I am sensible of the impropriety of trespassing so long on your Lordship's time; but a variety of circumstances combine to give me an interest in the literary fame of the university, which cannot be supposed to operate in an equal degree with those who either consider their academical stations as secondary objects, or who may be disposed to employ them in subserviency to particular views of ecclesiastical policy. I own I am sanguine in my hopes, that on this occasion my suggestions will meet with a favorable reception; but even should my expectations be disappointed, I can rely with confidence on your Lordship's candid indulgence; and it will afford some satisfaction to my own mind, that I have neglected no means of which I could avail myself, for the accomplishment of a purpose, which, from the

fullest conviction of its importance to the interests of learning and of the university, I have so sincerely at heart.

"I have the honor to be, with the greatest respect, my Lord,

Your Lordship's most obedient servant,

Right Honorable

(Signed) DUGALD STEWART."

The Lord Provost of Edinburgh.

The considerations, very hastily and imperfectly stated in the foregoing paper, were soon after powerfully seconded, in a long and excellent letter to the Lord Provost, from my friend and colleague Mr. Playfair. This letter, I am peculiarly happy in having an opportunity to communicate to the public, as I cannot help indulging the hope, that its good effects may thus be perpetuated among the successors of our present magistrates, when the details of that competition by which it was occasioned shall have sunk into oblivion.

"MY LORD,

"A dangerous innovation, which appears at present to threaten the university, induces me to give your Lordship the trouble of a letter. When I take this liberty, I hope you will not think that I presume too far, as I mean to do no more than lay before your Lordship an opinion about the degree of effort and application necessary for the discharge of duties, in which I have been long exercised; and much less, I flatter myself, will you suppose, that what I now do, argues any distrust in the zeal and attention with which the patrons of the university watch over its interests. Were I less convinced than I am, of the honorable and disinterested motives by which they are actuated, I would sit down. in silence to lament a misfortune which I saw no means whatever to avert.

"The measure to which I refer, and which, as I understand, is at present under consideration, is the appointment of a clergyman holding a living in the church, to the mathematical chair in the university. This is

certainly an innovation; because, among all the professors of mathematics in this college, or indeed in any other college in Scotland, no instance of the kind has occurred; and I have called it a dangerous innovation, as I am fully convinced that the consequences of it must prove highly prejudicial to the university. The grounds on which this conviction is founded, are respectfully submitted to your Lordship.

"If we look back into former times, my Lord, the history of our university presents us with a series of mathematical professors, that would do honor to any literary institution in Europe. About a hundred and thirty years ago, James Gregory, the inventor of the reflecting telescope, and the discoverer of many valuable truths in science, was professor of mathematics in the university of Edinburgh. He was succeeded by his nephew David Gregory, a mathematician also of great eminence, and afterwards professor of astronomy at Oxford. The brother of David succeeded him in Edinburgh, and for thirty years upheld the honor of his name and the credit of the university. Maclaurin came next, one of the most celebrated men whom this island has at any time produced, and whose name, after that of Newton, is of all the British mathematicians the best known among foreign nations. Maclaurin was succeeded by the late Dr. Matthew Stewart, a geometer who has left behind him many monuments of the highest talents, and most original genius. His son, who followed him, and who, at an early period of life, taught the mathematical class, with all the correctness and gravity which could have been expected from experience and age, has only been prevented from rivalling his father in the researches of geometry, by the impulse of genius directing him to other objects.

"The retrospect of such an illustrious line of predecessors has for me much more to humble than to elevate, feeling as I do, that I am in nothing entitled to compare myself with them except in the love of science, and zeal to promote its advancement.

"Now, my Lord, of all those whom I have enumerated, there is not one who ever appears to have thought